A Balanced Approach to Wellness!

I am currently visiting in the States. I am happy to be here and I am viewing all with a sense of newness and interest. There may be too many cars, but I focus on the trees. There may be too many sales, but I focus on the interesting designs of buildings and clever business presentations. I have been in several large supermarkets and department stores with food sections, and in them, I have lost my vitality. (Where I live, I shop in supermarkets and stores that aren’t so overwhelming.)

Too much to take in, too much to choose from.

As I walked down aisle after aisle of prepared foods and other products, I felt a rush of sadness for the bombardment on people by too many products, too many packages to read, too many eye-catching colors and names, too many decisions to be made. Too much time to be spent on relatively routine purchases. Too much pull to buy unnecessary things. Too much effort spent on trying to resist the call of the quick, the cheap, the treat, and the packaging. Manipulation through promises of happiness through tastiness, assuredness of nutritional needs met through ease of preparation.

The thing is—our bodies don’t want the easy stuff. They want the wholesome stuff. They want the foods that nourish, and if these foods are tasty, all the better. Wholesome, nutritious foods are so delicious when we savor them and let them weave their subtle magic on our palates.

The assignment: aim to exercise personal resistance by refusing to be swayed by the call of the pretty packages. Choose more fresh fruits and veggies. Try not to be drawn to the quick, cut-up fruits and veggies—buy the whole ones and wash and peel and cut them yourself. Take the extra few minutes needed to touch the whole fruits and veggies before you eat them. You might not have picked them, but at least you can prepare them for their good work nourishing your body. Aim to use whole products in a soup that you make or a casserole or a main dish. Making from scratch does not take much time if you don’t use too many ingredients and fancy techniques.

Personal resistance is not as small as it may seem. As it says in The Gift of Intuitive, Dedicated Comfort:

“It may seem that individual people have little effect on a large society, and many people believe that their actions are inconsequential. They are mistaken. Each act of kindness, each measure of understanding for one’s fellow, each occupational task performed with enthusiasm, each show of warmth, and each display of affection influences and continues the positive actions of others. The importance of the chain of connectedness must be realized. One link in the chain can create infinite effects. People must always remember that their actions matter.”